Architecture Firms
Construction documents are 31% of your fee. AI is turning them into the cheapest part of the job.
Sell pre-design strategy and a 48-hour feasibility as their own services, priced on judgment, not drawings. AI permit review is already live in LA, Austin, and Seattle.
The pressure architecture firms are facing right now.
Design Commoditization
AI design tools generate compliant building designs, and clients question the architect’s fee when the computer “did the design.”
Documentation Automation
AI is automating construction document production, the phase that generates the most revenue for most firms.
Client Direct Tools
Clients use AI visualization tools to “design their own” before hiring, arriving with expectations that compress the architect’s scope.
34 of 38
months with architecture billings contracting since October 2022, the longest downturn since 2008.
AIA / Deltek ABI
6%
of architects regularly use AI in their work.
AIA, 2025
$269K
net revenue per employee at top-quartile AI-adopting firms, against a $228K quartile baseline.
Monograph, 2026
Assessment
See how your firm compares.
Eight minutes. You get an assessment showing where your firm has real commercial gaps, how you compare to other architecture firms, and a report you can take to your next partner meeting.
What firms like yours are designing in the Workshop.
Most firms feel the itch and start experimenting: a few tools, a pilot, a project that looked promising on paper. The expensive version is finding out a year in that clients won’t pay for it. Whether you’re still deciding where to start or already two pilots in, the Workshop narrows what you take to your clients before you commit more budget to building it.
Every engagement is different. Your team’s domain expertise is the input. These are the kinds of offerings architecture firms leave with, specified and priced. Your team tests them with named clients, then builds what earns it.
The three shifts behind these offeringsRelated reading
Tokens Are the New Billable Hour
A metered bill tells the client the seller can’t price the result. Buyers are forcing AI vendors off theirs. The hourly invoice says the same thing. Your firm can afford to quit the meter; your vendors can’t.
93% of Firms Say They Offer Advisory. Almost None Have Systematized It.
Advisory is supposed to replace the revenue AI is repricing. In most firms it lives in one partner’s head, and no firm can scale what nobody has scoped.
Questions
The AIA Architecture Billings Index has been below 50 in 34 of 38 months since October 2022, the longest sustained downturn since 2008. Small firm billings fell 50% between 2015 and 2023 (AIA Firm Survey 2024). Construction documents are 31% of fees and the most automatable phase of the work.
A 48-hour feasibility on top of TestFit and Forma. Pre-design strategy and programming sold separately from design. Post-occupancy evaluation as a recurring subscription on completed projects. AI permit review is live in LA, Austin, and Seattle. Firms that productize judgment and pre-design strategy hold margin while production fees compress.
Percentage-of-cost was sized for the production phases AI is now compressing. Average firm profitability is 13.2% of net billings (AIA Firm Survey 2024). Developers use TestFit and Archistar to generate site plans and feasibility studies before calling an architect. The percentage holds while the hours behind it shrink.
Developers already run tools like TestFit and Archistar to generate site plans and feasibility studies before calling an architect. SWAPP and Hypar are compressing documentation timelines from months to weeks. Design-build is projected at 47% of construction spending by 2028 (FMI / DBIA 2024 Study). The compression is happening above and below the architect.
75% of architecture firms have fewer than 10 employees (AIA Firm Survey 2024). Small firms are most exposed to billings compression and least resourced to adopt AI. Larger firms have moved on production-side tools. Pre-design and post-occupancy services priced separately are still rare.
Construction documents represent 31% of total architectural fee (Washington State OFM A/E fee guideline) and are the most automatable phase. AI is compressing the time required. Hourly and percentage-of-cost billing on that compressed work loses fee proportionally. Fixed-fee, judgment-priced offerings hold the price.
$15,000
A full day with your senior team, then 2–3 offering briefs. Test what clients will pay for before you build.
Book a conversation30 minutes with Shawn Yeager. No pitch.